But when I know that the glass is already broken, every minute with it is precious.
Interpretation
Understanding the impermanence of things makes us value our time with them more.
Ajahn Chah's quote reflects on the nature of impermanence and the importance of appreciating moments as they come. By acknowledging that everything is transient, including our experiences and relationships, we learn to cherish the time we have, making each moment more meaningful, even if it is destined to end.
In practice
In a speech about mindfulness at a corporate retreat, you could use this quote to emphasize the importance of valuing the present moment.
Once you understand non-self, then the burden of life is gone. You'll be at peace with the world. When we see beyond self, we no longer cling to happiness and we can truly be happy. Learn to let go without struggle, simply let go, to be just as you are - no holding on, no attachment, free.
When sitting in meditation, say, "That's not my business!" with every thought that comes by.
If you haven't wept deeply, you haven't begun to meditate.
To observe and watch one's own mind is something really interesting. The untrained mind will run and follow its old habit patterns. Because it has not been trained and taught, it will get lost in all kinds of stories and issues. Therefore we have to train our mind. The meditation practice in Buddhism is all about training one's own mind.
Meditation is like a single log of wood. Insight and investigation are one end of the log; calm and concentration are the other end. If you lift up the whole log, both sides come up at once. Which is concentration and which is insight? Just this mind.
The heart is just the heart; thoughts and feelings are just thoughts and feelings. Let things be just as they are.
Before speaking, consult your inner-truth barometer, and resist the temptation to tell people only what they want to hear.
Knowledge is like a knife. In the hands of a well-balanced adult it is an instrument for good of inestimable value; but in the hands of a child, an idiot, a criminal, a drunkard or an insane man, it may cause havoc, misery, suffering and crime. Science and religion have this in common, that their noble aims, their power for good, have often, with wrong men, deteriorated into a boomerang to the human race.
From a very young age, my parents taught me the most important lesson of my whole life: They taught me how to listen. They taught me how to listen to everybody before I made up my own mind. When you listen, you learn. You absorb like a sponge - and your life becomes so much better than when you are just trying to be listened to all the time.
I thought my fire was out, and stirred the ashesβ¦. I burnt my fingers.
To make the public sentiment on the side of all that is just and true and noble is the highest use of life.
'Let the Great World Spin' at the end talks a lot about connections and light and possibility and the fact that the world doesn't end. Even in the darkest times, we have to go on.
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